People Stick Their Arm Through a Hole and Let This Tattoo Artist Do Whatever He Wants

Would you be willing to blindly stick your arm through a curtain and let a tattoo artist do whatever he wants?

Would if matter if that tattoo artist was Scott Campbell, the same renowned Brooklyn artist who has inked Sting, Marc Jacobs, Robert Downey Jr., Heath Ledger and Courtney Love? Campbell is betting that it will. This week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, Campbell is the tattoo artist in residence at Whole Glory, a one-man installation and performance at Milk Gallery in Manhattan.

At the exhibit, Campbell will tattoo strangers who will sit for up to 90 minutes, stick their arms through a curtain hole, and let the artist ink anything he wants, without knowing any details about the person attached to the arm or what they want.

“I almost feel like there’s a bit of a palm-reading aspect to it,” Campbell tells The New York Times. “I don’t really know the person, but I’m physically touching them, reacting to them subliminally.”